Adventure Must Go On
by Blizzard Aisu
Summary: After Sonic Heroes, Metal Sonic, alone and without anyone is somewhere brooding over his defeat. He meets someone who may be naive enough to help him. ALTERNATE UNIVERSE-SET STORY


ALTERNATE UNIVERSE  
After Sonic Heroes, Eggman does not bother to pick up (Neo) Metal Sonic, as he has no use for a traitor. After being painfully under Shadow and Omega's watch, he finds himself alone.. This starts a while afterward.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He had planned thoroughly for what he felt would finally be the time when his bumbling blue enemy would perish. But no, something seemed to be keeping that nuisance alive. Either that or the robot was cursed to fail at the one thing he wanted.. no, needed. They were both fine explanations. But yes, he had failed and oh, did it end bitterly.

Normally if he failed, he'd simply be repaired and put away until his master felt he was necessary to use. This process was repeated every single time, and he was given touch-ups and upgrades when he saw fit. Now there simply was no going back, as he wasn't the same, loyal robot that Dr. Robotnik was proud of. Through some will he had acquired over the years of servitude, his master had been tossed aside momentarily so the rogue machine could do things his way. His digital mind insisted that he had simply been fooling around with the hedgehog, as long as he could remember. He was no more serious than a circus clown, and in fact you could probably mistake him for one. After all, was he a machine that slaughtered many, and struck absolute fear into the rest? As he was released from his lonely room on the airship, and joined the so-called "_Sonic Heroes_," he.. thought he was about to learn from the best.

Oh so mistaken, this cycle had to end sometime. The dark blue sky seemed to mirror his feelings as of then, not a single star shining out in hope. The robot let out an aggravated hiss as he shifted on the cold concrete he was sitting on. Thankfully, no one was out at this time of night to hear him, let alone see him. Who went into the alleys anyway? He put a hand on the left side of his muzzle, where he had two diagonal gashes. The area above his left red orange optic was also mangled. He guessed that the infernal echidna had done this, not that he would remember it. His memory of the end of the battle was foggy besides seeing one blazing golden light, accompanied by two not as glorious ones, rushing towards him.

He lifted his head up to see an orange figure there a distance from him... He couldn't make it out exactly, but there were two long tails, that he was sure of. Consider yourself blind if you couldn't, as those things were humongous.

"YOU!" He 'closed' half his optics, glaring at the figure from afar... only for it to advance toward him. "I can assure you that there was only a sliver of a chance that you and your .. PALS could elude death!" Why was that pesty tag-a-long of his copy here? Honestly, hadn't he taken enough damage already? The fox continued to slowly walk forward, and the machine simply sat there. Perhaps if he got close enough, he could-

"Uhhmmm... mister... what are you doing here? And what were you saying earlier...?" A shy voice came from 'Tails', rendering Metal almost speechless. Who was this then? He gazed at the short fox, taking note of its appearance. Orange sandals that exposed their feet, a skirt that was cut evenly... They had an orange sleeveless shirt with what seemed to be a red diamond in the middle of it. He also took notice of what was on their right ear: Was that another red diamond? He last looked at their face and green eyes, two short locks of hair facing opposite directions. It then became clear to him that this was a female.

"This is none of your concern," he responded moodily as he became aware that she had spoken to him. "Be on your way, and I will not splatter this alley with your substances." The fox looked on at him innocently, and you could tell she was looking over his damaged body. His five star-shaped quills even received a bad make-over.

"You look hurt... Is there any way I could help?" To her, it was a wonder how he could push her away. She stepped closer to him, wearing that same naive, childlike look. She did seem to be around Tails's age, perhaps younger even...

The robot flinched inwardly. This appeared to be one oblivious kid. She seemed to either ignore his threat or just plain didn't realize what it meant. "You... do realize.. who you are speaking to?" He arose to his feet, arms stiffly at his sides as he gazed downward at the female.

"You're a robot, right? What's wrong with that? You aren't a bad guy, are you?" Her arms folded behind her back, her face adorning a slight frown. Otherwise, you couldn't tell if the robot intimidated her or not. "In fact, you look like that blue hedgehog I hear so much about."

"Of course I-" He began to answer her question, but halted at the 'blue hedgehog' comment... "- am not..." You could just hear him smiling, despite that he simply couldn't. Trickery, it was a talent that he naturally utilized. She obviously didn't know him or Sonic... "In fact, the blue hedgehog you speak of.. is my copy. He did this," he emphasized his statement by extending his arms forward, hands in his direction, "..to me."

"What?" She gasped, looking up at the robot in dismay. A hand went to her face. "Why would he do that? Isn't he, like, hero of Mobius or something?"

"Hmph." He turned away, his tattered cape flowing with his movements. "That..." His voice darkened, "That is what he would like you to think. He is nothing short of a menace." He clenched his fist in front of him as it trembled.

"What is he up to? I-I-I mean, he looked so nice..." She looked downward, a confused expression on her face.

It stopped, and he turned to the fox. "Looks can be very deceiving, my dear," he purred.

"Like.. you, what were you doing? You aren't..."

Metal stepped over and behind her, moving an arm to her shoulder. He gazed down at her. This seemed to be one naive child, and perhaps he could use it to his advantage... "Mmmmh? I was trying to stop him from taking control of everyone, and everything." One familiar with Metal Sonic would remember this conniving, yet... alluring tone of his. "He is only viewed as a hero because of his misconceptions.. I am viewed as evil all because I am a machine. Do you understand, uhmm.. Ah, you had not identified yourself..."

The girl tensed at the coldness of the robot's arm, not to mention the sharp fingers of his hands. She looked up to see the robot looming over her. She nodded and looked back down, seeming to still have questions. "My name is Tanya," she said shyly. An awkward silence fell over them, until the girl looked up. "How can I help you stop him?"

"I am Metal, for... the rather obvious reason," he replied. The robot nodded at her question, patting her shoulder... "Well, considering the fiend only just destroyed the place I called home... Not to mention, almost myself..."

"Oh, we can go to the abandoned base I stay at. It has lots of metal you could use for repairs."

He would have smirked. He just would have. "...Splendid."


End file.
